


Tell Henry I Love Him

by AngelwithMidnightWings



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 16:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7274683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelwithMidnightWings/pseuds/AngelwithMidnightWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had appeared, branding into her skin, at merely three years old. She had screamed as her skin prickled, her mother looking on in dread as her father tended to inflamed lettering along her hip with a cool cloth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Henry I Love Him

_Stay strong Regina._

They had appeared, branding into her skin, at merely three years old. She had screamed as her skin prickled, her mother looking on in dread as her father tended to inflamed lettering along her hip with a cool cloth.

When she was eight her governess had told her it would be the last words her soul mate ever said to her. Even at such a young age it seemed a melancholy affair to the young dark-haired girl, that you wouldn’t know your soul mate until you were saying goodbye.

She had heard stories of losing your soul mate. She heard about the excruciating pain as the words—much like they had appeared—burned away into a scar. Personally she had witnessed as her mother ripped the heart out of a young servant’s chest. Watched as his young wife draped herself across him and heard her screams, mixed with the smell of burning flesh, as the words scrawled across the young woman’s collar bone scarred away.

She’d been convinced Daniel, her stable boy, was her soul mate. At only seventeen, with her whole life ahead of her, she was sure the boy would be by her side for the rest of it.

When her mother caught them, impeding their escape, dread climbed up her throat. When Daniel spoke, when he stood behind her encouraging her and making sure she knew he was there… she wished he didn’t.

She had never told him about what her soul mate’s last words would be and she never asked for the words he had told her were on his should blade.

When she kneeled over him, like that servant’s wife had done so many years before, and pressed her lips to his fervently, she knew that those words were hers. His eyes shone with realization and acceptance even as the light faded from them.

Then she was screaming, the sudden searing pain along her hip worse than she’d ever expected or could have anticipated.

She could vaguely hear her mother’s voice above her own tormented whimpering as the fabric of her dress caught on the freshly made scar, “Trust me Regina, I know best. Love is weakness, Regina.” She was sure her mother said more but she had stopped listening. Her soul mate was gone, dead by her mother’s own hand. She would never be happy again, of that she was sure.

…

 **Not** long into her marriage with King Leopold, she was introduced to Tinkerbell.  Or rather, she was saved by Tinkerbell after falling from the palace balcony.

Then the fairy revealed to her the magic of pixie dust, promising it would lead her to her _soul mate_. Not telling the fairy about the scar, marring the skin of her hip. Oh, she hoped, hoped this could be true, for apparently fairies were never tattooed with their soul mate’s last words. Apparently it didn’t happen to everyone.

She wished for the blonde haired fairy to be right, until it led her to the pub and that man with the lion tattoo. It was another tattoo that was supposed to signify a man that was her soul mate, her true love. But she turned from the door. She did get her soul mate’s tattoo, the proof was permanent and no inked words were scrawled into her skin upon seeing this man. Maybe one day she would find him, know him, and even love him. But that was not today, as she turned away.

…

 **The** curse was almost upon them and the Evil Queen stood in the wreckage of a nursery that would never be used. She stood taunting over the couple, who’d hidden their child away from her.

A woman, her step-daughter, who had found her soul mate, known by true loves kiss. She remembers seeing this girl’s own tattoo, many years before. _I love you Snow, I’ll wait for you on the other side._ It was written in delicate strokes along her spine.

She’d never seen his tattoo but figured it would be just as sweet, just as sappy. She assumed it would be just as fulfilling as Snow White’s.

Just as the cloud of purple magic surrounded the three, the Queen let out an agonizing scream. Pain rippled, burned, prickled across her ribcage, just below her heart.

Through her anguished screams she could hear herself laughing, in a dazed, maddened sort of way as she realized, she did have a chance at her happy ending again. She could… She _did_ have another soul mate somewhere out there.

…

 **The** moment she woke from the effects of the curse she was relieved.  She felt to the tips of her now shortened hair. She thrust the covers from her silk clad body to observe any differences. She ran hand down the silk and paused as her fingers grazed a sore spot. She remembered the new tattoo.

She pulled the silk shirt until it pooled above her ribs to observe the new script written across her skin.

_Tell Henry I love him._

Her heart clenched at the name. It was her father’s. Her confusion rolled around in her head as she remembered clear as day, ripping her father’s heart from his chest.

She had a soul mate out there somewhere. This tattoo was proof. She would get her happy ending.

…

 **Years** later, after gaining a son and after his mother rolled into town in that metal coffin one wheels, and restarted time. After gaining a family and helping them through many fights with unchangeable villains, she found the man with the lion tattoo again.

She found Robin Hood.

She settled for the man who the fairy dust promised her. She loved him as hard as her damaged heart would allow.

Her town of Storybrooke lived in peace for many, many years before he was taken from her. Their sons were both grown up. It had been a quiet evening when a teenager had mugged the man as he was walking home. He had been stabbed before the teen ran off with a wallet full of few crisp bills and pictures of the family they had together. She had found him hours later along the road, bleeding out. She cried as she squeezed tight to his hand, pleading for him to stay with her.

She was brought back to a time where she had draped herself over another man. She waited with baited breath for him to say something else. He locked eyes with hers and she leaned in close. “I love you,” he choked out. He laid still after that, last words rolling away in the crisp wind.

He was never her soul mate.

Her sons other mother, Emma Swan, found her an hour later. She vaguely remembered dialing the blonde’s number, giving her their location. All she remembers is her best friend’s arms wrapping around her, pulling her away.

Emma Swan was her warmth that night as she molded herself into the blonde’s hold. The sheriff never told her it would be alright, but she kept tight grip on the older woman for many weeks, making sure she was always taken care of, always with someone who loved her.

Until the day she was alone.

The day she was walking to meet her son and his mother for lunch.

Until she saw the face of a man she’d wronged many, many years before, standing in front of her.

He was pointing a gun. She was frozen to the spot.

Until two gun shots went off and she was shoved out of the way.

Two forms crumpled to the cement and one was not hers, but the woman with wild blonde curls.

Until, “Emma, no,” was howled, as she dropped beside the blonde sheriff.

She saw a rueful smile and lifted the shirt to press her hands directly onto the bullet wound.

Until she saw _Emma, No_ in delicate cursive along the blonde’s hip.

Until “Tell Henry I love him,” fell from lips turning blue.

Then agony ripped from her throat, the flesh along her ribcage, where pretty, delicate cursive burned and bubbled away.

Then the life, the light that was Emma Swan, faded.

She curled into the sheriff’s side as clothes and blonde hair slowly stained red, as the body beside her grew cold.

She lost her soul mate, twice in one lifetime. She wouldn’t get another chance. It would all be over soon, she knew.

_Stay strong Regina._

_Tell Henry I love him_

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT or it's characters. Sadly... That would be pretty cool though. SwanQueen would definitely be canon!  
> ~Angel with Midnight Wings


End file.
